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Alvaric Verne was on safari in the heart of Africa when he received a letter written six months earlier--a letter that was to change his life. Informed that his uncle and cousin had been killed in a carriage accident, Verne is summoned to England to assume his title as the eleventh Lord Verhnam. — When Verne arrives in the spring of 1825, he dis... more »covers that the duties attending his title are more than he anticipated. His relatives had sold the family treasures acquired through the centuries and mortgaged the estate to support their gambling, wine and women. Verhnam Abbey is dilapidated and empty, the lands and farms in ruin.

Theobold Muir, a multimillionaire neighbor, is the new owner of the treasures and holds the notes. He is quite willing, even anxious, to return all and restore the abbey to its former splendor--on one small condition--that Verne marry Muir's daughter, Jarita.

Able to find no alternative, Verne agrees to the loathsome scheme and finds himself married to a woman much harder to tame than the lions, cheetahs, and parrots he has collected for his menagerie.« less